Our stay in Anaconda may have been a detour, a place we had no idea about, but it was a good week here. The weather was bearable and the scenery, if you looked, was spectacular. Nothing really grabs your attention unless you look just a bit closer. Don't get me wrong, the Anaconda Mountains and Mount Haggin are outwardly still snow-capped a bit and are beautiful to look "at". It's when you look beyond that beauty, behind it, that you find yet another part of this area that is both amazing and challenging. Today our curiosity took us atop the mountains we have passed back and forth, the Anacondas and Mount Haggin, and we got to see what was on the other side of the mountains!
The local visitor's guide says "bighorn sheep are in abundance" here. Well, they lied!
We encountered a gate, like we did in Colorado, and weren't sure we could make the drive through the wildlife management area. We looked a bit closer and we were within the legal limits to do so!
When Thom and I drive on the interstate highways across this great country of ours, we look up and see roads going up, over, and down the mountains. We always wondered what it would be like to do that, after all we have a Jeep! Well, today we found out. This was a fabulous day to crisscross the mountains that we have passed this past week. No wildlife, but the views were amazing! It's too bad the smoke from the Idaho fire is still ever present and obstructing the views a bit.
Anaconda, MT including the Anaconda Smelt Tower.
We are at the top of this mountain and it is stunning!
The road we are about to travel, from one mountain top to another!
The roads were narrow and rocky with deep crevices but Thom and the Jeep handled them with ease.
The Montana sky - so beautiful. I love this state.
The roads were steep and a challenge at times but we made it!
A rock pile atop a peak of the mountains. I could have stayed here for hours if I had a chair. I need to put that chair, and binoculars, in the Jeep for our next investigation!
I don't know if you can truly see how deep the crevices were in the road, or how rocky it was, but we were dodging rocks left and right!
The roadway below is Montana Highway 1.
The visitor guide also told us that Lost Creek State Park had lots of wildlife as well. Again, they lied!
Thom putting our $6 in the honor bucket, the park fee for non-residents of MT.
I was so excited - fireweed, like I saw all across Alaska; not as abundant, but absolutely beautiful.
Thom realized we were on the other side of these mountains earlier in the day (photos above)!
More lovely fireweed.
The visitor guide did not lie about this! A 50 foot waterfall deep within a 3500 foot canyon! You could feel the coolness of the water.
Tomorrow we head northwest for St. Regis, MT, which is the second half of our detour. We will be there two nights. On July 6, we will be back on schedule when we will spend two nights in Libby, MT and then a week at Columbia Falls, MT, July 8-15(Glacier National Park); both Libby and Columbia Falls we have had reservations for over six months!
We are looking forward to continuing this journey. It's been a fabulous adventure thus far, even with all that Mother Nature has thrown at us!
Until next blog ...
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